Romney To Hit Key Primary States On Book Tour

For frequent updates about Mitt Romney’s upcoming book release, including tour dates, book signings, and media appearances, Go Here.

For those scanning the horizon for bold solutions to America’s problems, our ship is about to come in. With a cargo load of forward-thinking ideas contained in his new book No apology: The Case for American Greatness, Former Governor Mitt Romney’s book tour will begin in March and stop in 18 key primary states. Just when conservatives will need someone to take the helm, Romney demonstrates the wisdom, steadiness, and vision needed to solidly captain the United States back to greatness.

WASHINGTON – Later this winter, Mitt Romney will strike out on a national book tour, but unlike his party’s most successful recent author he does not expect to make headlines with bits of fresh gossip from the 2008 campaign, see his fans camp overnight outside bookstores, or chat with Oprah Winfrey about his family.

“Inevitably there are going to be comparisons with the Sarah Palin book,’’ said Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney spokesman. “We’re not going to match her crowd size or sales. These are two different people with different ways of expressing themselves.’’

The March 2 release of “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness,’’ will kick off a month long tour taking the former Massachusetts governor to at least 18 states, including Iowa.

But Romney, considered by many in the party to be the default Republican front-runner for the 2012 nomination, is approaching the book tour with the patient, workmanlike mien that has distinguished him from other probable contenders who seem far more eager for attention.

“Romney is playing things very methodically and deliberatively,’’ said Mark McKinnon, a former media adviser to President George W. Bush and 2008 Republican nominee John McCain. “I think he understands the physics of this game very well now and is carefully calibrating his approach to 2012.’’

“No Apology’’ will be Romney’s second book. The first, “Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games,’’ a narrative account of Romney’s stewardship of the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, was published in 2004, while he was governor. At the time, Romney held a book party at the Boston Public Library, signings in Massachusetts and Utah, and conducted a series of radio interviews.

This time Romney has assembled a far more ambitious itinerary, organized by his publisher, St. Martin’s Press, and the Macmillan Speakers Bureau, which represents Romney in speeches before nonpolitical groups. In Iowa, Romney will visit Des Moines and Ames, where he will speak at Iowa State University. (Romney has yet to confirm appearances in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two other early primary states.)

St. Martin’s will print 200,000 copies of Romney’s book, far less than HarperCollins’s 1.5 million-copy first printing of Palin’s “Going Rogue,’’ which reportedly sold 1 million copies within its first two weeks. Romney has not disclosed the amount of his advance, but a spokesman says he will contribute his earnings to a charity he has yet to name.

St. Martin’s has no plans to purchase print ads promoting Romney’s book, but will rely on promotional e-mail messages to a supporter list maintained by Romney’s political action committee and online advertising targeted at his backers, including more than 118,000 registered fans on Facebook.

“A lot of the outreach we’re going to be doing is based on his channels,’’ said Jeanne-Marie Hudson, associate director of marketing for St. Martin’s. “He has a very strong and organized base of supporters that are going to get his word out just as they did in the campaign.’’

Romney has been working on the book for much of the last year, convening groups of friends and advisers to discuss the material in it. Fehrnstrom describes it as “an ideas book,’’ with a focus on US standing in the world and away from the social issues that dominated Romney’s 2008 campaign. The title refers to what Romney describes as President Obama’s pattern of apologizing for American behavior in speeches abroad.

“The book is more than a critique of the Obama presidency,’’ said Fehrnstrom. “The book itself is primarily forward-looking.’’

Romney’s efforts to cut a statesman-like profile have included a new focus on foreign policy. He is working to schedule a January trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan with his former lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, and Mitchell Reiss, a retired diplomat who was a foreign policy adviser to Romney’s campaign. The trip, organized by the International Republican Institute, will be Romney’s second visit to Afghanistan and first to Pakistan.

With America awash in deep waters, we need someone experienced and proven in steering things right. Let’s do all within our power to make sure, come 2012, that Mitt Romney is at the helm. Full steam ahead!